BLOGS: New DMCA rules on circumventing encryption
EFF’s Corynne McSherry explains the effect of the new DMCA rules, starting with the exemption on “breaking DVD encryption in order to take short clips for purposes of criticism and commentary for noncommercial use, educational use and documentary films.”
Before this exemption was issued, the only people allowed to circumvent DVD encryption for fair use purposes were film and media studies professors. Now, that category has expanded to include all college and university professors and film and media studies students (as long as they are circumventing for educational purposes), documentary filmmakers, and noncommercial vidders. The user may take only a “short portion” of the original work for purposes of criticism and commentary, and she must reasonably believe she needs to break the DRM to accomplish that purpose.
Kevin Townsend 